Meet the quarterback from Alabama who Bill Belichick will be starting in UNC’s season opener

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — As the University of North Carolina Tar heels begin its football season under famed head football coach Bill Belichick, a local athlete will take the helm of the offense as starting quarterback.

On Wednesday, Belichick announced that Gio Lopez, a native of Madison, Alabama, who played at the University of South Alabama before transferring to UNC this year, would be starting in the team’s first game of the season against Texas Christian University this coming Monday.

“I feel very comfortable with him and what he’s doing,” Belichick said during a press conference talking about the game. “But he’ll get better as we go forward because we just will — we have a lot of practices in front of us, and a lot of games in front of us, and we’ll all learn a lot from those.”

After graduating from James Clemens High School in Madison, where he was named a First Team All-State by the Alabama Sportswriters Association, Lopez made his way to south Alabama to play for USA, where he started 11 of the team’s 13 games during the 2023 season. In his first year, Lopez threw for over 475 yards and rushed for 154 yards to score four touchdowns, all with just two interceptions.

The following season, Lopez only played in five games, starting in one, but had 2,559 passing yards, 465 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. In April, Lopez announced he would be transferring to UNC.

“Talking to my dad, it was like, ‘Man, I’m going to be Coach Belichick’s first starting quarterback in college,’ Lopez said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

UNC’s football season under Belichick has come with a lot of fanfare, with many curious how the longtime Patriots coach and multi-Super Bowl winner will do in college football, not to mention attention on his love life.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.